CNA Staff, 06 April, 2024 / 9:00 pm (ACI Africa).
A prominent Catholic bishop urged U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in an April 2 letter to engage in a “partnership” with Nigeria to help the nation “withstand the forces of violence and extremism.”
Bishop Elias Zaidan, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, called on Blinken to “support the concerns of my brother bishops in Nigeria” following the Nigerian bishops’ recent declaration urging their government to address internal corruption, security, and economic issues.
One Nigerian bishop has described the situation in Nigeria as a Christian “genocide.” There have been recent kidnappings and in some cases, murder, of Nigerian Catholic priests as well as a series of massacres last Christmas, where more than 200 Christians were killed.
In the Feb. 22 declaration, the Catholic bishops of Nigeria described the “seriously deteriorating situation” largely in the “security and economy” of Nigeria and urged the government to listen to the “contribution” of all Nigerians.
“The bishops of Nigeria have decried the unabated violence perpetrated by terrorist groups such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State-West Africa Province in the northeastern states, Zaidan noted in his letter.